ITC PAT up 11.6% in Q4 at Rs 4,259.68 cr, beats analysts' estimates

Cigarettes business recovers with volumes surpassing pre-pandemic levels, says company.

ITC, the cigarettes-to-hotels major, reported on Wednesday an 11.60 per cent year-on-year (YoY) increase in consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at Rs 4,259.68 crore in the March quarter (Q4) led by growth across segments. In the year-ago period, PAT was at Rs 3,816.84 crore.

The company’s consolidated revenues were Rs 17,754.02 crore, up 15.25 per cent from Rs 15,404.37 crore in the year-ago period. PAT was up sequentially, but revenues were down. In the previous quarter, PAT was at Rs 4,118.80 crore and revenues from operations at Rs 18,365.80 crore.

The ITC board, at a meeting on Wednesday, recommended the appointment of Supratim Dutta as director, and also as whole-time director for a period of three years with effect from July 22, 2022, the company said in a filing with the stock exchanges. Dutta was appointed chief financial officer in 2020.

The appointment is seen as part of succession planning as the term of executive director Rajiv Tandon comes to an end on July 21, 2022. Tandon is responsible for finance.

ITC’s financial performance beat Bloomberg estimates for revenues at Rs 15,983.9 crore and net income at Rs 4,003.7 crore.

The company attributed its performance to “strong” growth across all segments. Cigarettes staged a broad-based recovery with volumes surpassing pre-pandemic levels, the company said. Revenues from the segment stood at Rs 7,177.01 crore compared with Rs 6,508.43 crore in the year-ago period. Pre-tax profits from the segment stood at Rs 4,357.44 crore compared to Rs 3,895.27 crore a year back.

The company said that the non-cigarettes FMCG business, despite unprecedented increase in prices of key inputs, performed well through focused cost management interventions across the value chain, premiumisation, product mix enrichment and judicious pricing actions.

In addition, re-opening of educational institutions helped in the recovery of the education & stationery productions business, though it was still below pre-pandemic levels. Revenues from the non-cigarettes FMCG segment were at Rs 4,148.62 crore, up from Rs 3,694.80 crore a year back.

In the year, the company had about 110 new product launches; it was about 120 last year.

Revenues from agri business were at Rs 4,375.42 crore compared with Rs 3,383 crore a year. Pre-tax profits were at Rs 244.31 crore as against Rs 185.11 crore.

Revenues from the hotels segment were Rs 407.42 crore compared to Rs 302.35 crore. Pre-tax losses narrowed to Rs 29.08 crore from Rs 40.26 crore a year back.

The company said that the hotels segment witnessed smart recovery in spite of the third wave impacting recovery momentum in January-February’22; exit occupancies surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Also, ARRs saw a sequential improvement but remained below pre-pandemic levels.

Paperboard volumes, the company said, were at record high and growth was aided by demand revival across most end-user segments. The segment recorded revenues of Rs 2,182.77 crore compared to Rs 1,655.91 crore. Pre-tax profits were at Rs 449.69 crore as against Rs 323.25 crore.